Massachusetts budget includes increase in funds for Springfield and Westfield homeless shelters

The Republican file photo | Michael S. Gordon11.29.11 | SPRINGFIELD — William J. Miller, left, executive director of Friends of the Homeless, gives Massachusetts Gov. Deval L. Patrick a tour of a dorm room in the new Friends of the Homeless Resource Center.

SPRINGFIELD – Executive directors of the Friends of the Homeless shelter on Worthington Street and the Samaritan Inn in Westfield said Monday they are relieved to receive a new increase in state funds for shelter beds, saying it was critically needed.

A line item in the new state budget, sponsored by state Sen. Gale D. Candaras, D-Wilbraham, raises the minimum state reimbursement for shelter beds from last year’s reimbursement of $20 per day, per bed, to a new minimum rate of $25.

Seventeen shelter programs in Massachusetts including the Friends of the Homeless Shelter and Resource Center and the Samaritan Inn, had reimbursement rates below $25, and will see an increase under the state budget signed Sunday by Gov. Deval L. Patrick.

“It really saves our daytime programming,” said William J. Miller, executive director of Friends of the Homeless. “We see sheltering as a 24-hour (per day) operation. They are homeless all day long. This allows us to continue to see it in that fashion.”

Friends of the Homeless is contracted with the state to provide 85 beds for homeless men, and 48 beds for women. The rate increase approved by the state will expand funding by approximately $243,000 a year for the Springfield men and women shelters.

Peter C. Gillis, executive director of the Samaritan Inn, joined in praising the state reimbursement increase.

“We are more than pleased,” Gillis said. “We were at the point where we were barely getting by. This will give us some relief.”

The Samaritan Inn is contracted for 30 beds, and the rate increase will expand funding by approximately $43,365 a year.

Candaras said the minimum rate for beds went to $20 last year, and then to $25 this year, targeting those shelters who were chronically underfunded. Many other shelters in central and eastern Massachusetts have higher rates, but the new minimum is aimed at fairness and reducing the gap, she said.

The $5 increase in the bed rate will cost approximately $2.3 million statewide, according to the state.

“We worked very hard to secure it (the increase) in a very difficult year,” Candaras said. “We knew folks from the Friends of the Homeless were very concerned. For them, a lot turned on it. To meet the needs of the homeless was seriously jeopardized by the very low rate.”

Miller said that without the rate increase, Friends was going to have to curtail daytime services such as the use of computers and guidance for improving their lives. Many of the homeless who would typically seek such services would be left “wandering the streets,” he said.

The loss of day programs would have hurt the homeless and the city, Candaras said.

Candaras praised state Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, D-Barre, chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, for agreeing to the rate increase after extended negotiations with her.

“We were pretty confident the governor would not veto the shelter work we had done, but held our breath,” Candaras said. “Even in the worst of years, we were able to make the argument (for funding).”